The Beautiful Game: Barcelona's aura fading

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, September 4, 2007

AFTER LAST WEEK'S Champions League draw, most bookmakers made Barcelona the favorite. That seems a little strange, since the Spanish club may struggle just to get out of its group.

Barcelona, the 2006 winner, was paired with perennial French champion Lyon, German champion Stuttgart and Rangers, rejuvenated under Walter Smith. Two seasons ago, the prospect of facing Barcelona would have given opposing teams a case of the yips. The aura, though, must be fading a bit, given the Catalans' late-season collapse in La Liga and second-round exit in the Champions League to Liverpool.

Barcelona still can't defend properly, as Liverpool proved, and a win over Werder Bremen in the final game of the first round was needed just to get to that stage. Sure Thierry Henry's arrival will add to the talent up front, but how will manager Frank Rijkaard juggle his lineup? (Samuel Eto'o is out two months with a thigh injury, which will make it easier for Rijkaard to pick a team, though Eto'o is still the club's best finisher.)

Chelsea was listed as the joint second favorite, and the Blues were also handed a tricky task. Valencia, which they narrowly beat in last season's quarterfinals, Schalke 04 and Champions League veterans Rosenborg all await. Chelsea isn't close to hitting top form in the Premier League and has already had a handful of injuries -- the crocked Michael Ballack wasn't even included on the roster for the group stage.

Wonder what odds you'd get for Barcelona and Chelsea exiting in the first round.

According to the U.K.'s Sunday Express, Beckham, who has spent more time in the treatment room than on the field for the L.A. Galaxy, is considering the possibility of joining an English club on loan during the MLS offseason so he can keep his spot with the national team, where he only needs three more appearances for 100.

Beckham is a loyal guy, so U.S. soccer fans shouldn't worry about him going back to Europe for good -- at least not yet. But his desire to play for England has always been massive, so a loan might appeal to him.

In any case, the Galaxy went into panic mode, with president and general manager Alexi Lalas saying it wasn't going to happen.

"We would not consider it," said Lalas, quickly becoming a household name in the U.K. "He has been playing at a very high-pressured level for a long time now and he needs to get healthy. Once the season is over, he and all of our players need to get a physical and mental rest."

Keller joined the U.S. brigade at Fulham during the transfer window from Borussia Moenchengladbach, and it's probably only a matter of time before he becomes the starter at Craven Cottage.

He was brought in after backup goalkeeper Tony Warner made gaffes in back-to-back weeks, and current No. 1 Antti Niemi looked far from convincing in a 3-3 draw against Tottenham on Saturday as he returned from injury.

"I'm not just here as a backup," Keller, never afraid to speak up, said. "That's one of the reasons I came here. I don't want to waste my time at a club where I know that even if I am kicking the other guy's ass in training day after day, I still don't a get chance to play."

Surely that was a dig at Spurs manager Martin Jol, who pushed him out at White Hart Lane when Paul Robinson arrived even though Keller did little wrong the previous two campaigns.

"I had played every minute of every game for two seasons, and then they told me I couldn't even compete with Paul Robinson," the 37-year-old added. "I just wish they'd have told me earlier so I could have left sooner."

Think Keller is losing any sleep over the trouble at Spurs and Robinson's dip in form?

The former Romania striker, who put Scotland defender John Kennedy out of action for three years with a vicious challenge in a friendly and has also been accused of head butting an opponent in the tunnel, received a 22-game ban from Romania's soccer federation for grabbing a linesman while playing with Politehnica Stiinta Timisoara last month.

He hasn't been the only bad boy lately. In Italy, Juventus defender Jonathan Zebina appeared to slap a member of the press on the sideline and was rightfully given a second yellow card in awild 3-2 winover Cagliari. His manager, Claudio Ranieri, did an Arsene Wenger and said he didn't see the incident.

KAHN MILESTONE Speaking of outspoken shot stoppers, Oliver Kahn set a Bundesliga record for appearances by a goalkeeper -- 535 -- in Bayern Munich's 1-1 draw against Hamburg on Sunday.

Love him or hate him, the 38-year-old was the best goalkeeper around when he was a tad younger. And where there's Kahn, there's drama. He's had a long running feud with current German No. 1 Jens Lehmann and was vilified in the German press for having an affair with a barmaid while his now ex-wife was pregnant.